This coming August Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is to host the Summer Olympic Games. The opening ceremony will be held in Maracana Stadium on August 5, 2016 and the start time wil be 8 p.m. BRT (7 p.m. ET). The formal ceremonial opening will include the hoisting of flags, welcome speeches and the athlete parade.

The ceremony will be a vision of the country and its hopes, as per Fernando Meirelles last September 2015. He also said that they will try to veer away from the clichés but the carnival will still be part of the opening ceremony.

For the lighting of the cauldron, it was planned by the organizing committee led by spokesperson Mario Andrada to be moved to the nearest public location near the port of Rio de Janeiro.

Special guests among many will be Milos Zeman, Czech President. For the performers, the event will be graced by RNB pop artist R.Kelly, Diva Celine Dion, Opera's greatest Pavarotti, Bjork, Olivia Newton John and Paul McCartney. There will also be local Brazilian artists performing in the ceremony program.

TV Coverage

NBC confirmed that it would be doing a tape delaying practice for the opening ceremony broadcast for the American audience. Broadcast will start at 8 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT, which means that there would be an hour delay on the east coast and a four hours delay on the west coast.

The International Olympic Committee, IOC, who manages the Olympic broadcasts on television, radio, mobile and internet channels, commits to responsibly allocate Olympic broadcasts rights to all media companies all over the world through negotiation of rights and agreements.

Tickets

For spectators during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the ticket is priced R$200 (USD85) for category E tickets. The most expensive tickets categorized "A tickets" cost R$4600 (USD1949).